to Make Ends Meet

Another Kroger Mega Deal

2009-02-01T11:14:00.003-06:00

Not as many deals this time. But my daughter and I have been trying to increase our food storage and this Mega deal had one nice deal for us.

2 Hormel Chili $1 each
-.55 off 2 coupons which our store doubles
-.05 each after promo

We prefer homemade chili. But the chili has a 3 year shelf life and we like it fine. So I bought coupons for this Mega Deal on Ebay and Coupon Clippers.

Mega Grocery Store Savings

2008-11-14T12:27:00.010-06:00

I’ve been taking advantage of coupons and store sales for a couple of months. Here is one I just had to post about. It ends at my store (Kroger – in the mid-south) next Tuesday, but this seems to come up every 6 months or so for two week stretches. It has been running in Kroger affiliate stores too (Smith’s, Dillons, Fred Meyers, Fry’s, Ralphs, of course check your local ads.)

For the past week and ½ they’ve been running their 10 item Mega Event. Buy 10 participating items and get $5 off your order instantly. You can do this 3 times in one order.

For this trip I got these 30 participating items:

Cheerios $2
- .75 coupon
.75 after promo

Quaker oatmeal canisters $1.50
- $1 coupon each
FREE after promo

2 Betty Crocker Fruit snacks $2 each
- $1 off 2 coupon
$1 each after promo

2 Hunts 28oz tomatoes $1.50 each
- .40 off 2 coupon doubled
.60 each after promo

Nestle morsels $2.50
- $1 coupon
$1.50 after promo

Scotch Brite sponges $1
- $1 coupon
-.50 each after promo! These paid down the cost of my other groceries!

Domino 5lb sugar $2.50
- $1 coupon
$1 after promo

Smuckers jam $2.50
- .50 coupon
$1.50 after promo

carnation evaporated milk $1
- .50 coupon
FREE after promo

Glade candle refills $2.50
- $2 coupon each
FREE after promo, and generates a $4 off your next order coupon

It totaled out:
30 items for $48.50 - $28.05 in coupons - $15 promotion -$4 oyno coupon = $1.45!!!

I also snagged a couple of other items:

2 H2O lemonades both FREE after B1G1 coupon and B1G1 e-coupon on cellfire.com
1 yoplait plus 4 pack yogurt discounted to $1 and FREE after $1 coupon
1 goldfish crackers $1.17 after .50 e-coupon
3 johnson’s buddie’s soap bars .99 each FREE after $3 coupon

Tax was $4.38 + $1.17 goldfish +$1.45 promo items = $7 out of pocket!

Or in "grocery game" terms I saved 93%.

There are lots of websites that post about great deals to be gotten. See my side bar for my favorites.

I'm especially happy because besides the candle refills, which I bought because I made money buying them, the rest of my purchases are items we use! I'm off to stock up on more oatmeal, sponges, and canned tomatoes. The candle refills may make nice Christmas gifts with the candle holders that were more than free at Walgreens last month.

Slippery Savings

2008-08-14T23:20:00.008-05:00

Stretch your buck farther by changing out liquid hand soap dispensers for foam soap dispensers. You will use a lot less soap! There are often .35 to .60 cent coupons out there for the Dial dispensers, which can make them quite cheap if your store doubles coupons. Even cheaper if they are on sale!

When your foam dispenser is empty, don’t buy the foam soap refill. The foam refills are only very watered down liquid hand soap that sells in the same size bottle and at the same price as regular liquid hand soap. You can add the water yourself! Add 1 part liquid hand soap to 4 or 5 parts water into the empty foam dispenser. Swirl it around to mix it gently. You can let it sit for awhile, as it may take some time to blend completely.

One big 96oz bottle of generic liquid hand soap has fueled 2 of our bathrooms for over 8 months for our family of 6, and it’s still not empty. It’s important not to use soaps with moisturizers or beads in the foam dispensers. Those soaps will mess up the dispenser’s pump. We’ve had one of our pumps for over a year and it is still working perfectly. I just keep refilling it and washing it out periodically.

I first purchased a foam dispenser from Pampered Chef for about $9 last year thinking that it would pay for itself eventually. It came with an extra pump. That should have been a clue. The spring in each of the pumps only lasted 1 month! I do love a lot of pampered chef items, just not this one.

Hooray! My first post! I’ve been contemplating this blog for awhile. And it is thrilling to watch it toddle off into cyberspace. Ahhhhhh, it’s so cute!

What are your favorite money saving tips?